Page 63 of Our Haunted Omegas
None of us moved until the fire burnt itself out. Seconds ticked by in little eternities but when all that was left were embers only ten minutes had passed.
“Stay here!” Cade ordered but Teal was already moving.
“Everything’s still there! That’s why the glass didn’t blow out!” Teal shouted.
I tried to get up, but Indigo was still on top of me with his wings out ready to protect me from every angle. I tried to locate Odell but couldn’t see him either. We were both pregnant. Someone set the world on fire while we were pregnant.
“It’s okay,” Indigo cooed to me. “Just a little longer. Then I’ll buy you a whole ice cream shop if you want.”
“Guys,” Teal called from outside, barely audible to my buried ears. “It’s clear.”
“Is it, though?” Indigo called back.
“It is. I think—Just come and see. Well, you and Cobalt should come first. Just in case. Uncle Nicky’s out here too. The guards are okay. The truck is okay. Everything is okay.”
Indigo and Cobalt told us to stay inside but there was no way in the name of Juda, Frost, and all their little babies that we weren’t going with them. It wasn’t safe to be without them. My hands shook as we stepped back outside into the sunlight.
“Guardie!” Odell rushed forward and skidded to a halt at the last second. The murder dog sat happily next to the passenger door of the truck wagging his tail. In his mouth was a charred arm and there in the severed arm’s hand was clutched a grenade.
“Okay, back inside,” Cade ordered but Odell didn’t budge.
Cobalt and I stepped forward at the same time, but Indigo dragged me back into his arms.
“The murder dog may not get blown up, but you can,” Indigo hissed in my ear.
“So can Odie! Don’t make me kick you in the shin, you overgrown brute!” I said, trying to decide whether or not elbowing him would free me without dislocating the joint.
“Everyone, stay still!” Uncle Nicky shouted about the chaos. “I’m going to get it.”
“What did that damn dog thing do, Nicky?!” Cade demanded. “Can your fire magic manage this?”
“I think he blew up the bad guy with some sort of magic that only blew up the bad guy. I mean, if he’s made of war trauma, the ancestors know that he has a lot of explosions inside him,” Uncle Nicky sighed. “And I can manage any damn thing I need to. You know that!”
“He’s a good boy, though,” Odell insisted. “Guardie is a good boy! It’s not his fault that he was born because of a war! He didn’t start it. He didn’t—”
“Odell,” Cobalt said his name gently, stepping between him and the grenade. Indigo’s heart skipped over itself and then Tealwas in front of Cobalt. For a second, I thought they’d fight over it but Uncle Nicky stepped in front of all of them.
“He is a very good boy. He stopped a would-be assassin. I bet the security footage will be incredible. Now, we just have to get the grenade and make it not so dangerous anymore,” Uncle Nicky explained. “I can do that but first he has to hand it over very carefully. Do you think he’ll do that?”
“Tell him what you want, Odie!” I shouted, giving in and letting Indigo hold me in place. I wanted Odie to be okay, but I had to think about my baby now too. If I got myself blown up, my baby went with me. My wolf whined inside his inner sanctum.
“Everyone take a breath and a big step back,” Cade said. “Just one big step back. Not you, Guardie. You stay right where you are.”
Guardie’s long, shadowy tail gave a thump against the parking lot and it was my heart’s turn to skip a beat. Indigo held me tighter, trying to turn me away from the scene. When I wouldn’t budge, he settled for sliding his big hands over my belly. I wasn’t even showing yet. The baby inside me was inside of the tiniest egg to ever exist. Scales popped up on my mate’s hands as if he beckoned them out because I was being too damn stubborn.
The Moonscale guards stepped back but no one in the family budged.
“Nicky,” Cade said, his voice low but steady.
“You three back up too,” Uncle Nicky said without glancing back at Teal, Cobalt, and Odie.
Uncle Nicky suited him. I’d never heard him called anything else because any time someone spoke of him, it had been one of the triplets.
“What do you need him to do?” Odie asked a second later. “He’s a good boy. He usually does what I need him to.”
“Will he let me take the arm? Hold onto it until I have a good grip on it?” Uncle Nicky asked.
“Be careful,” Teal said.
